1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to test and test item creation and storage systems and methods, and, more particularly, to such systems and methods that are electronically based.
2. Description of Related Art
Instruments created to examine a student""s knowledge of a particular discipline typically include a series of questions to be answered or problems to be solved. Tests have evolved from individually authored, unitarily presented documents into standardized, multiauthor documents delivered over wide geographic ranges and on which multivariate statistics can be amassed. As the importance of test results has increased, for myriad educational and political reasons, so has the field of test creation experienced a concomitant drive towards more sophisticated scientific platforms, necessitating increased levels of automation in every element of the process.
Creating items for assessment testing must be accompanied by a method for synthesizing information for the construction of an examination from some or all of the items. In the past, and continuing to the present time, test item authors have used xe2x80x9citem cardsxe2x80x9d containing the xe2x80x9citemxe2x80x9d (here intended to mean the xe2x80x9citem stemxe2x80x9d), which refers to the question or problem, the options (correct answer and xe2x80x9cdistractorsxe2x80x9d), associated artwork and/or graphics, and statistical data. This information was pasted onto card stock to form the item card, and a collection of item cards referred to as an xe2x80x9citem bank.xe2x80x9d The physical card medium remains in place owing to familiarity and to a lack of electronic alternatives with desired features.
Clearly, the use of collections of physical cards is less than ideal in the current electronic environment, for many reasons, among which are: time to sort items according to one or more predetermined criteria; difficulty in accessing a particular item; physical limitation on the amount of information recordable and on the life span of the medium; security issues; difficulty in editing an item; the need to translate the data from physical form into electronic form when constructing a test; the inability to transfer the item information quickly between multiple users and for multiple users to view an item simultaneously in a plurality of locations; and the inability to present updated statistical information calculated as a function of a selected variable while maintaining previously calculated data.
All these limitations are amenable to an electronic solution, which has not been available in a unitary system that possesses the flexibility to operate adaptively over multiple platforms.
Related systems and methods include those of Lewis et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,127), Haga et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,563), Evans (U.S. Pat. No. 5,274,749), Daniels et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,310,349), Bloom et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,597,312), Schoolcraft (U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,751), Griswold et al. (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,749,736 and 5,890,911), Yanagida et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,918), Trif et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,870,731), Ho et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,909), Heinberg (U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,516), Kershaw et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,827,070), Sanchez-Lazer et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,000,945, assigned to ETS), and Sweitzer et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,018,617).
Commercial computer-based systems known in the art include those of TestBuilder (William K. Bradford Publishing Co.), MicroCAT(trademark) (Assessment Systems Corp., St. Paul, Minn.), CATBuilder(trademark) (CAT, Evanston, Ill.), Curriculum Director (Bookette), Examiner""s Plus (Pilot Software Ltd., Ankara, Turkey), and TestMate products (Master Computer Systems, Inc., and CTB/McGraw-Hill, Monterey, Calif.).
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an automated system and method for creating test items.
It is an additional object to provide an automated system and method for accessing created test items.
It is a further object to provide an automated system and method for creating a test from stored test items.
It is another object to provide an automated system and method for electronically coordinating a plurality of elements related to a test item.
It is yet an additional object to provide an electronic database of test items.
It is yet a further object to provide such a database having statistical data associated with at least some of the test items.
It is yet another object to provide a system and method for coordinating a plurality of phases of test item creation and review.
An additional object is to provide such a system and method for linking a plurality of data on test items.
A further object is to provide such a system and method for facilitating and accessing of a selected test item or a plurality of related test items.
These objects and others are attained by the present invention, a system and method for creating a test for administration to a student. The method comprises the steps of creating a plurality of test items using unitary software means. Each test item has a plurality of elements, including an item stem (a question or problem), one or more options (a choice of answers, including one correct answer and at least one of a xe2x80x9cdistractorxe2x80x9d or an open-ended answer), and metadata-related to the test item.
The next step, if desired, comprises adding to at least one of the test items an image using the software means. The image may comprise, for example, a graphic or a piece of artwork. Each test item is then stored in an electronic database. Access to each test item in the database is provided, wherein the test items are searchable by at least one of the test item elements.
The test creator then electronically selects at least one test item from the database, and views at least a portion of the selected test item. If desired, the at least one selected test item is assembled into a test.
The system of the present invention comprises communicating hardware and software means for performing these steps.
Another aspect of the present invention comprises a system and method for creating a test item. The method comprises the steps of accessing a database software means, which is used to compose metadata relating to a desired item using the database software means. The record is stored in an electronic database also using the database software means. A word processing software means is accessed via a link through the database software means, and a textual portion of a test item is created with the word processing software means. The textual portion is then stored in the record.
Next, if desired, a graphical image desired for merging with the textual portion is accessed from a medium, and the graphical image is electronically linked with the textual portion. Finally, the linked graphical image is stored in the electronic database.
The system of this aspect of the present invention comprises linked word processing, database, and graphics processing software adapted to perform the above-listed steps.
It is to be understood herein that the term xe2x80x9cstudentxe2x80x9d is not intended to be limited to a school attendee; rather, a target of the test items of the present system and method may comprise, for example, a person desiring certification in a particular field or profession, such as a technical, legal, medical, or other discipline. The creation and manipulation of test items for any venue are thus intended to be encompassed under the present invention, as well as tests delivered by any means known in the art, including via hard copy, computer, and Internet access.
It is also to be understood herein that the term xe2x80x9citemxe2x80x9d is not intended to be limited to word-based modes; rather, alternate modes of administration such as oral/auditory, video, or graphic interactions.